Long time readers know, one of my favorite things is to quote the Buddy Bell Axiom:

Never say things can’t get worse.

It seems appropriate because we are now talking about a Royals team that has scored a grand total of two runs in two games against the Houston Astros. They have 15 hits in that time. All singles. Their last home run was May 18, 2014. (Yeah, I need to add the year as a qualifier. You never know.)

I don’t usually like to compare sports teams in different leagues. But last night something happened I thought was appropriate. The Royals were at home against the Astros. On the other side of the 435 loop, Sporting KC was at home to New York. Sporting, with their rebranding, new stadium and engaged ownership, are definitely in the ranks of major league sports. As such, both the Royals and Sporting will be spending the summer competing for the entertainment dollar of Kansas City. You can get tickets to Royals games for as low as $7. At Sporting, the cheapest ticket is $32. This makes sense as the Royals will have 81 home dates while Sporting will play a quarter of that at home.

Last night, Sporting drew an announced crowd of 19,221.

The Royals drew 17,862.

Let that sink in for a moment. On a Tuesday night in May, with all things being equal, more Kansas Citians chose to spend more money to attend a soccer game in KCK than a baseball game at The K. You could have walked up to the box office at Kauffman (or logged in to StubHub), bought a ticket for under $10 and basically selected where you sat once you entered your stadium. Or you could have bought a standing room only ticket at Sporting Park and squeezed along a rail behind the north goal.

Spare me your “But soccer sucks” rants. Whether or not you like soccer isn’t relevant to the point.

The point is, the Royals aren’t just losing on the field. They have waged a three decade long war against their fan base. Every time I meet someone in their teens or 20s who is a Royals fan, I ask them, “Why?” Why would you give your fandom to a team who shoves a subpar product in your face and otherwise treats you like the garbage that sticks to the bottom of your shoe? Myself? I’m a lost cause. I was there for the glory and I remember it and I think about how perfect it would be to get back to that level. I guess that makes me kind of dumb. Or hopeless. Or both.

This Royals franchise is at a crossroads. 2014 is the year it was all supposed to come together for Dayton Moore and his Process. And here we are, treading water in the dreaded sea of mediocrity. What is the cost of another failure? Wholesale firings? I’m not necessarily against that (I’ve called for Dayton’s dismissal and I continue to stand behind that. I wrote it, after all) but that likely means another complete rebuild. Or at least a rethinking. That’s probably a good idea, but how long would it take a new regime to affect change? One year? Two years? Do we have the stomach for that? Do we have a choice?

I don’t know anymore. And that makes me sad for the state of baseball in Kansas City.

Last year, we were at a similar point and the Royals went on a second half roll where they at one point won 15 of 20 games and wedged themselves back into contention. Can they do it again for the second consecutive season? Watching the hitters fail at an alarming rate and the pitching regress, I’m skeptical.

But I’ll keep coming back. Yet it increasingly feels like I’m in the minority. And that’s not a good thing for the Royals.

Because I don’t know. And because whatever the answer is, it’s going to be painful.

Written by talkinc about 9 months ago.

Craig, I was born the year the Royals last made the playoffs and the reason I cheer for them they are the local team. Living in Nebraska they are the closest and I hate the Huskers so I can’t talk football all year with them. Thats why I root for them.

I agree 100 % Dayton should be fired, but not till the end of the year. If they fire him now Glass will sell off every valuable piece to save money.

Written by DanL about 9 months ago.

The Sporting attendance comparison says a lot – instead of always giving the Royals a pass – this is a real measuring stick in which they come up short.

My attempt at answering the question of where the Royals go from here would be this: firing Dayton wouldn’t accomplish anything for the rest of the season, so he would stay.

You probably can’t find a trade partner that would give the Royals something that would immediately improve their offense, nobody in AAA would really make a difference here now, so you have to primarily go with what you got.

If there were an offensive player available – I would let Butler move on – he has been declining and has never been a power hitter that you need in the middle of the lineup.

Realistically, what you got is a group of guys who are decent, but underachieving, players still early in their careers. Last year, the change in hitting coach got them going. This year I would go with replacing Yost to shake things up.

The rude awakening, sudden change in routine, would make the players realize they have to fight to keep their position – then the wins would come with their talent level.

Written by Zach about 9 months ago.

Why? Why am I a Royals fan? I have no clue really. No clue. I’m turning 21 years old in a week and for some reason I’m still a Royals fan. I went to games as a kid with my dad, that’s basically why. I loved going to the games, but I’ll be honest, they’re close to losing me. I’ve watched 2 games this year. Two. That many years ago I probably watched 130.

Written by Dustin about 9 months ago.

I get that it is soccer and it seems like a shock that the Royals would be outdrawn by an MLS team, but it has nothing to do with fan support, popularity, etc. This same phenomenon was going on last year when the Royals were “competing” for a playoff spot. You can chalk up the attendence difference to supply and demand.

1) There are less home soccer matches (around 20 compared to 81), which puts a premium on attending each home soccer match.

2) If someone is a big fan of both Sporting and the Royals, they will choose Sporting because “there will always be another game tomorrow”.

3) The Royals still outdraw Sporting in overall viewership by a very large margin and in the current market that matters significantly more than it used to because of television revenues. (This is not to say that the Royals have done well capitalizing on this)

4) If the Royals had 20 home games a year they would probably sell out almost all of them, if not all of them.

Overall, comparing attendance between baseball and any other sport is comparing apples to oranges. Attendance in baseball does not function in the same way as sports with less attendance. If you compare the revenues, the Royals will still generate more income through attendance than Sporting or the Chiefs will in a year, just based on the the number of games. In baseball it isn’t about filling the seats for every game (not to say that teams wouldn’t like that, obviously they would). In Soccer or football it is about getting as much “bang for your buck” for each and every game because there is a limited amount of games to draw in revenues in this way.

Dustin, I appreciate the thoughtful reply. While I agree attendance comparisons are frequently of the “apples and oranges” variety, I’m coming from a different place. Fifteen years ago, the Wizards would have been lucky to draw 4,000 on a Tuesday. I know. I worked at those games. In a relatively short amount of time, Sporting has built itself into a solid brand.

I think if someone attends a particular sport when two are being played at the same time depends on a number of factors. Affordability, fan experience, winning, etc. there are hardcore on both sides who will always go to their team and their sport. I’m questioning whether the pendulum is swinging.

The Royals will always have more TV viewers thanks to distribution. We used to say the same about attendance.

Oh, and without a winning team, there’s no way the Royals would sell out a 20 game home schedule. Winning trumps everything.

Written by Dustin about 9 months ago.

I will concede that Sporting has built a great brand, and we can only dream of what it would be like if the Royals had ownership like Sporting has.

I will also concede that is quite possible that without a winner, the Royals would not sell out a 20 game home schedule.

However, I do not think it is fair to chalk up the difference in television viewership to distribution. If Sporting were more popular than the Royals they would have their distribution channels.

I also, ask you the question, if Sporting KC and Kansas City had the same number of home games and were at the same point in their schedule, with identical track records as they have now (Sporting as an upper-echelon MLS team, the Royals fighting the fight to be .500), and equal cost of attending, do you really think Sporting would outdraw the Royals? This will probably never be proven either way, however, I fully believe that if the Royals didn’t sell out, they would be 30000+ every night.

I give Sporting all the credit in the world for being able to build the brand they have built more so than blame the Royals. I would be very interested to see how elastic/inelastic baseball attendance is this time of the year based on record. I would venture to guess that in May-June it is fairly inelastic. Obviously, this is just a guess, as I have no proof.

I am glad to see this blog up and running again. Keep up the good work.